(Colin Powell sings YMCA during 2004 ASEAN summit in Indonesia)
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell was in Cleveland on Friday. And in his remarks, he struck a tone about as opposite from Vice President Cheney as one can imagine.
From a report by Brian Albrecht of the Plain Dealer:
{Powell] then segued into a story about how, as a private citizen, he now has to endure airport security searches, even though he’s obviously no terrorist.
As he said he told one wand-wielding guard, “If you know I’m Gen. Powell, why don’t you go over there and look for Osama bin Laden?”
Yet in a pattern he would follow for the duration of his remarks, he used humor to transition into something serious. Such as airport security, and how he believes America is paying too steep a price for overly stringent precautions that have discouraged foreign students and people seeking medical care from coming here.
As he said, “What we cannot do, can never do, is change who we are as a people. We are an open, welcoming nation. So let’s not be afraid, America. Let’s stand tall, welcome the rest of the world, and show terrorism what democracy and freedom is all about.”
Powell has also urged Guantanamo to be shuttered. He thinks we need to find vehicles to engage Hamas. If he was Secretary of State in any other administration than this one, I think Powell would be in Tehran, secretly, doing some tough deal-making with Iran’s leaders.
And he thinks America must remain an open, welcoming place for the rest of the world — particularly the Muslim world.
That’s a brand of public diplomacy that Karen Hughes never quite mastered.
— Steve Clemons
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